Advice please re. plant for a grave

[Maud2011]

Hi Gardeners,

I would really appreciate advice on choosing a plant to decorate a grave. The grave is in quite a shady area of the Cemetery but it does get a certain amount of dappled sunshine when the sun is high. It would need to be quite low maintenance as I'm unfortunately a useless gardener and it would have to be something that would be happy not to be watered for a few days at a time.

Grateful for any ideas.

I have planted snowdrops and daffodils on my ds's Dad's grave so they will come up every year. (I hope - also bad gardener!). I would like to have something flowering in the summer as well.

No advice but interested in the answers. Had a lovely hardy fushia plant on my mums stone and someone stole it.

Thanks for the ideas Casawasa, don't daffs need a lot of sun though? Snowdrops would look lovely. Is bulb planting time in autumn?

Ideally I want something that I can take there next weekend as it's an important anniversary.

I'm so sorry to hear about the fuchsia being stolen from your mother's grave Chimchar, that's horrible

How about rose, these ones don't mind dappled shade: www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/roses/plcid.8/vid.167/

I'd plant a paeony. They come up every spring, flower in the early summer & don't mind being a shady spot

On DH's grandparents' grave ( which incidentally I pass every week and weed four times a year, deadhead occasionally ), dappled shade also:

• Hellebore
• Rose
• Daffs
• Lily of the Valley

Thank you so much for the ideas everyone.

I've just realised it would be a good idea to do one of those soil tests so I can make sure whatever I finally choose is happy to be planted there...

It would also be worth contacting the parish council - ours have quite strict guidelines on how big plants can grow. Most of the suggestions would be fine in our cemetery as long as kept pruned, but it would be awful to plant something and then find out it had to go due to the rules and regs :(.

Most bulbs you would buy bare and plant in autumn - but you can buy pots of daffs in flower now and stick them in the ground. They seem quite happy in dappled shad round here. Hellebores are quite low maintenance (H. orientalis seems to be more resilient than H. niger for me) and come in a range of shades. I love paeonys, but I do get frustrated when the flower stems collapse after a light shower just before they've come into their full glory...

Dappled shade sounds like woodland planting to me. Google woodland plants and see what you like. Bluebells, primroses???? Foxgloves?